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OPINION

Vilsack needs to lead on water quality issues

Over a cheeseburger lunch at his desk on May 7, 2014 at USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack dives into stack of briefing documents.(Photo: Jennifer Jacobs/The Register)Buy Photo

Tom Vilsack had a lot of tough talk on water quality in Thursday's Register, but he fails to use his bully pulpit to actually guide Iowa's governor and lawmakers, who have only come up with water quality plans that range from bad to worse.

We already know what will help fix Iowa's waterways: Clean Water Act enforcement, mandatory clean water rules and regulations, much tougher fines and penalties for manure spills, and a moratorium on factory farm construction.

And when it comes to paying to clean up the mess, corporate agriculture should pay to clean it up, not taxpayers. Agribusiness giants are making billions off of a crop and farm system that traps farmers and is controlled from the top down — not the soil up.